Portland works as a consultancy focused on public affairs, corporate affairs and geopolitics, helping clients build reputation, manage risk and embrace opportunity. The work spans two registers at once: long-term positioning and credibility on one hand, and managing moments of heightened attention on the other, reflecting the reality that reputational work rarely separates neatly into planning and crisis response.
Delivery rests on integration, drawing together specialists pulled from media, politics and business rather than a single communications discipline. Advisers include former journalists and people who have counselled prime ministers, alongside experts in areas such as future technology, commerce and international development. That mix is presented as the basis for handling both steady reputational management and sudden geopolitical or political exposure within the same team.
Leadership includes Simon Whitehead as Chief Executive Officer, Olivier Beheydt as Chief Financial Officer, Susanna Rushton as Chief of Staff, Steve Morris as International Chair, and Emma Dean as Chief Growth Officer. Portland operates from London, Doha, Nairobi and Paris, with a London base at Bankside on Southwark Street and offices including The Gate Mall in Doha, Sanlam Tower in Nairobi and rue la Condamine in Paris. That footprint puts public affairs and geopolitical advisory work within reach of the Middle East, East Africa and continental Europe alongside its UK base, matching the international scope implied by its geopolitics specialism.